Available reactivities

Available hosts

Available applications

Background of SLC8A2 / NCX2 antibody

Ca2+ has proven to be a universal sigling molecule in excitable and non-excitable cells. However, being that its intracellular concentration is 1000 time lower than the extracellular milieu, it is important for the cell to keep this ratio for proper function. NCX, a +/Ca2+ exchanger is responsible for most of the efflux of Ca2+ out from the cell1-3. The NCX transporter is a member of the SLC8 family of solute carriers which in turn belong to the CaCA superfamily.NCX-1 is one of three +/Ca2+ exchangers (NCX-1, NCX-2, NCX-3) leading to one Ca2+ movement across the plasma membrane in exchange of three + influx. However, the transporter can reverse the direction of the transport if the concentrations of + and Ca2+ change6. The transporter has nine transmembrane domains and intracellular N- and C-termils. Between tansmembrane domains 5 and 6, the presence of an extra-long intracellular loop, termed the f loop is responsible for regulating the activity of NCX-1 via several different mechanisms like ion binding, phosphorylation, etc. The f loop also has sites which undergo altertive splicing.Of the three NCX-1 expressed in mammalian cells, NCX-1 is the most widely expressed. Its expression is detected in the heart, brain, and kidney. NCX-1 undergoes altertive splicing in a tissue dependent manner. The first splice region does not change the overall structure of the protein but rather ebles the expression of the gene specific to the tissues which require the expression of the gene. The second splicing site leads to a number of proteins varying in length. NCX-2 expression is much more limited; it is expressed only in neurons. NCX-3 is expressed in skeletal muscle and in some regions of the brain and undergoes altertive splicing in a similar fashion to that of NCX-1.Due to their central role in modulating Ca2+ levels in the cell, NCX exchangers are involved in various pathophysiological diseases/disorders such as hypoxia, aging, alzheimerâ??s7, to me a few.